Fires they are a ragin!

Looks like it has been a while since a good blog post here - things have been very busy for us on the Deschutes which leaves little time for blogging. However, big events recently have prompted a post. Firstly, we have had wildfires raging all around us on the Deschutes as well as on the John Day River. River closures and highway closures have been changing from day to day - yesterday (August 30) the river was closed from Warm Springs to Harpham Flats (Maupin) which means that Trout Creek, South Junction and other points were all closed due to fire. The Highway between Maupin and Bend is open now but can close at any moment due to major fire activity up on the top of the hill where the microwave towers are (Critereon). The fire was caused by a huge lightning storm we had one week ago. For the second year in a row, the small riverside community of Dant was nearly torched but the fire was held at bay and it soon jumped the river. The most dramatic thing that happened was that the old railroad tunnel on the road through the Deschutes Club (near Dant) caught fire - the timbers inside that made up the support for the tunnel were engulfed in flames and the tunnel exploded then collapsed. News from the road is that nobody was stranded above the tunnel, but the Deschutes Club and North Junction guys are going to have to make plan B for getting to their houses. Above you can see some photos of the tunnel burning - courtesy of Rod Woodside who owns Richmond's Service station here in Maupin.

The steelhead fishing has been good this year - fish counts are right at the ten year average, so there are enough steelhead cruising up the Deschutes to keep anglers on their toes. Our camp trips down to the mouth have been doing really well, and our day trips around Maupin have been great one day and tough the next. The steelhead are concentrated from Shearer's Falls downstream but there are a few making it over the falls and up into the downtown corridor of Maupin. The White River has become quite milky in recent days, butt he volume of the White is low, so it is NOT negatively impacting the Deschutes below it's confluence.

As always, with steelhead fishing reports.....it is better to be on the river making the news rather than waiting around to hear a good report. The good report comes out only after the fact and that means that you missed the epic steelhead day....just sayin'